ASHRAE BC History

New Release: "ASHRAE BC HIstory: The First 65 YearS"

The British Columbia Chapter of ASHRAE is now in its 65th year, being chartered on April 9th, 1952, with the inaugural meeting and formation of the BC Chapter of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers (ASHVE). Society President Ernest Szekely presented the Charter, at the Quadra Club in Vancouver, on April 9,1952. There were 36 Charter Members, headed by our first Chapter President Eth Minaker. These 36 pioneer members had the forsight to establish a Chapter that grew to over 600 members, produced several Regional and Society representatives, spun off another Chapter, and still remains a strong and active Chapter after 6 decades from its beginnings.

In 1960 the young Chapter hosted the 67th Society Annual meeting at the Hotel Vancouver. By this time ASHVE (which had dropped the Ventilation moniker to become ASHAE) had merged with the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers (ASRE) to become ASHRAE, as we know it to this day. The Society Meeting proved to be very successful according to reports from Red Martin, the General Chair on behalf of the Chapter. Fraser Wiggins was the Chapter President that year, and presided over a Chapter that had grown to 190 members. Scholarships were established for deserving students at BCIT and UBC and that tradition continues to this day.

In 1963, the Chapter Research & Technical Committee, under the guidance of Chairman, Reg Racine published a document entitled “Recommended Outdoor Design Temperatures for 95 Locations in British Columbia”. Much of this data is still used today to calculate design heat loss.

The first of several Chapters Regional Conferences (CRC’s) was held in 1965 in Vancouver. At that time we were still a part of Region X, which extended all the way to California and Arizona. Red Martin was the Chairman for the host Chapter. A few years later in 1979 the Regions were re-aligned to the present arrangement, which includes the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and the Western Provinces, thus the BC Chapter became an integral part of Region XI.

In 1977 Vancouver again hosted a CRC.

In 1980 Dick Perry received the Regional Award of Merit.

In 1983, Dick Perry became Society President, a great honour for our Chapter.

In 1985 our membership roll was reduced substantially, but it was due to the formation of the Vancouver Island Chapter, which received its charter on April 2, 1985. Our membership has since recovered and has steadily increased to over 550 members.

Expo 86 Worlds Fair happened in Vancouver in 1986 and Gary Hudson and his committee hosted a great CRC that year.

The late 1980’s was a strong time for the Chapter. In 1989 the Society Annual Meeting again honoured Vancouver with a visit to the newly completed Trade and Convention Centre. The late 80’s also earned Distinguished Service Awards for Percy Butler and Dick Perry and also a Regional Award of Merit for BobMartin. Ian Mackie served on the Society Board of Directors. Dick Perry also became the first Society Fellow from our Chapter.

The early 1990’s continued to see strong participation and performance by members of the BC Chapter. Alex Boomeand Dale Carter received Regional Awards of Merit. Dick Perry received the Andrew T. Boggs Service award and an Exception Service award for all he had done for the Society. During this time Alex Boome was Region XI DRC.

1995-96 Godfrey Nash was our Chapter President. Highlights of the year Raju PaulTEGA RVC visited our Chapter. The same year Blair McCarry received an ASHRAE Symposium Paper Award. GM Place (Rogers Arena) was recently opened and the January Meeting/Tour attracted nearly 300 people the largest attendance ever at a chapter meeting. It moved from regular Wednesday night to a Tuesday to accommodate the Vancouver Grizzlies NBA game (remember them).

1996-97 Peter Sung and his Board of Directors organized a great year for the Chapter . Starting off with a great September meeting/tour of the newly expanded Vancouver Airport. Don Holte ASHRAE Society President Elect visited the Chapter in April and attended the Bi-Annual Trade Show “Commitment in Technology Transfer”. This was followed up by Refrigeration Night Tour of BC Hothouse Foods and finishing with our annual Golf Tournament. This year also the B.C. Chapter/Vancouver Island combined Website was set up.

1997-98 Bruce Munro was President. The year’sprograms were all in place and confirmed early. John Jutras newsletter editor even got a Totem out in early August to start off the year. Highlights this year included a tour of Granville Island Brewery and a visit from DRC Robert McDowell. Mr. Art Lewis Life Member and Past Chapter President(1977) passed in May.

1998-99 Rob Flipse was President. Also year for bi-annual trade show. Interesting tours this year were the ECOM Emergency Call centre and Burnaby8-Rinks. Don Holte Society Presidentwas here to Present Distinguished Service Awards to Ron Strong and Alex Boome. This year was also instrumental in offering a series of ASHRAE ALI Professional Development Seminars.

1999-2000 Y2K and many other end of Century issues predominate. Tim Hutchison is President and the biggest undertaking of the year is a joint Region XI and X CRC chaired by Rob Flipse. Again the Chapter is providing Professional Development courses. Dick Perry received the Society Exceptional Service Award.

2000-01 was the beginning of ASHRAE Satellite Broadcasts, “EngineeringTomorrow’s Quality of Life”, the first being on Standard 90.1-1999. Brian O’Donnell was president we had visits from Society President Jim Wolfe, Distinguished lecturersTom Hartman and S.Mathaudhu, concluding with a tour of Molson Brewery. Also a tour of the Historical HotelVancouver the site of the 1960 Society Annual meeting.

2001-02 Eric Bradley was President is this very important year. Our Chapter celebrated it’s 50thAnniversary. Past Presidents night celebrated this milestone with Lee BurgettSociety Vice President, Doug DunfordDRC. Presentations also made to Ron Strong and Blair McCarryas they became Fellows of the Society. Ken Meadow 1973 Chapter President passed away this year. Brian O’Donnell RP chair exceeded $20,000.00 in donations the highest to date in Chapter history.

2002-03 Rod Yeoh and his Board put together a great list of dinner programs and speakers. Starting withSMACNA Duct Construction Seminar. Visit from Don Colliver Society President. Ken Baker came to speak to the group about the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid and all its implications, jumping ahead in history we won the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. At CRC Norm Grusnick won Winston award for best Chapter Programs in Region XI. Sadly this year Robert Hole a 50+ year member passed away.

2003-04 Norm Grusnick presided over the Chapter affairs. Regional Technology Awards won for The City of Vancouver Works Yard and Heritage Mountain Secondary School. A tremendous refrigeration tour of Neptune Foods. In other areas it was a sad year. We lost Mickey Drake at age 86 and Ralph Robson. Ralph could best be described as “ Mr. Ashrae” of his time. He published the extensive history of the first 35 years of the Chapter.

2004-05 Peter Horwoodlead the team. Ron Vallort Society President visited as well as Julian de Bullet a Society Distinguished lecturer. John Hoyle received his 50 year membership certificate and Dale Pitts became a Life Member. The White Rock Operations Centre – Blair McCarry-Keen Engineering received a Regional Technology Award. The Chapter received the Dick Perry Award as Top Performing Chapter in Region XI. Dale Carter received the Distinguished Service Award at the Denver Colorado Society Meeting.

2005-06 Bob Mackie had a theme for the year “Get Involved”. The first tour/meeting of the year had great attendance to visit the Life Sciences Centre at UBC. Kevin Marple RVC Membership visited in October. Chris Collett our hard working CTTC Chair did an excellent job. Submissions from MCWConsultants, Cobalt Engineering, and Jade West Engineering all won awards in their respective categories. The year ended with another well attended Trade Show.

2006-07 Ed Chessor was President. Meeting held for Southern Interior Section. Society President Terry Townsend paid us a visit. Dennis Stanke gave an updateseminar on ASHRAE Standard 62. We had a very informative refrigeration tour of the new Thunderbird Olympic arena complex at UBC.

2007-08 Wayne Borrowman was President. In October a great tour of the Kwantlen Trades College Campus as well as a Tour of the shop of Viaduct Sheet Metal. Society President Kent Petersen came and spoke to a luncheon meeting. B.C. Building Code updates and ASHRAE 90.1 were featured at a meeting this year.

2008-09 Chris Collett was an outstanding President. His theme “Value to Members” began early as he had all Board members over to his house for a barbeque and planning session. Dr. Ray Cole spoke to us on “Net Zero”. Tour of new Olympic Speed Skating Oval in February attracted almost 200 guests. Held a great student night and Job Fair. ASHRAE ALI 90.1 day long seminars were conducted. Regional and Chapter Service Awards presented to Norm Grusnick. Kam Hon and Bob Yoneda both passed away this year. Norm Grusnick received Research Promotion Top Dog Award as best Research RVC. The year ended again with a great day of Golf at Westwood Plateau.

2009-10 Charlie Sabean was President. Chris Collett had a record breaking year collecting ASHRAE Research funds. We started the year with a large group touring the new Convention Centre. Tariq Amlani started a local YEA group. Visits from Society President Gordon Holness And Student RVC Doug LeCren. The Chapter won several Regional Technology Awards and Best Chapter at CRC in Regina. Tim Hutchison Past President and organizer for many successful trade shows passed away this year. The year ended with another great Golf Tournament at Westwood Plateau.

2010-11 Les Pereira was President. First ever “YEA” social organized by Tariq Amlani. Again the year started off with a large Tour-The Olympic Village. Distinguished Lecturer Kent Petersen tried to make it in January but snowfall prevented him leaving Portland, we did his Std 189 lecture via website. All meetings well attended as there were a good variety of topics. ASHRAE winter meeting in Las Vegas was attendedby over 70 local ASHRAE members as it was so close. Dick Perry received the F. Paul Anderson Award. The City of Vancouver celebrated its 125th Birthday this year. The CRC was in Portland this year and our Chapter won six Regional Technology Awards. The year ended again with a great golf tournament and a hugely successful SMACNA – Seismic and Duct Construction Technical program.

2011-12 Chris Collett was President again as we had a shuffle on the board. The year started with a great tour of the DELTA Controls facility in Surrey. A couple of Distinguished lecturers this year Dennis Knight on “BIM” in October and Tim McGinn in February. In October past Society President Lynn Bellanger passed away suddenly. November Alan Niles enlightened us on Ground Loop Heat Pump systems. In January we celebrated our 60th chapter year anniversary with Ron Jarnagin Society President in attendance. Mark Lawton from Morrison Hirschfield presented his report for RP-1365 “Thermal Performance of Building Envelope details for Mid and Hi -Rise Buildings” at the march meeting. This year life member Cliff Cox passed away in the spring. The CRC saw our chapter win many technology award categories and as always the year wound down with another great golf tournament. Les Pereira raised the bar as the highest Research contributions in Region XI at almost $30,000.00. The City of Vancouver adopted ASHRAE 90.1-2007.

2012-13 Mihaela Spulber was President. The first woman President for our Chapter with many more to follow in the future. As has been happening regularily we started the year off with a great tour of the Van Dusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre. We received new Chapter Banner and Awards Banner with the new ASHRAE Logo. Also in September the YEA group had a speed networking night. Long time life member “Jack” Bean sadly passed away this year. November Distinguished Lecturer Max Sherman `Ventilation –The once and Future King`` entertained us all. The Chapter has implemented a new on-line registration process and on-line roster. January began with `Records Management, Retention and Cloud Computing by Stuart Rennie. The Chapter has now set up Linkedin and Facebook groups. In February Anders Nielsen from Grundfos came all the way from Denmark for a very informative presentation ``Pumps in HVAC Systems-What really matters`. Dale Carter received an ESA Award and was elected as a Society Fellow. Tom Watson Society President visited us for our March Meeting “Broadening ASHRAE’s Horizons”. Was also attended by 23 Past Presidents. Refrigeration again enlightened us in April with Benoit Rodier from Cimco speaking on CO2 Refrigeration and it’s Applications. In May Chris Collett and his committee helped us play host to a great Regional CRC meeting at the River Rock Resort. Our Chapter won several regional awards including Best Chapter. This years activities ended again with a sold out golf tournament. Jayson Bursell from UBC won the Frank M. Coda Scholarship. The UBC Student Design Team won the ASHRAE Society Student Design Competition at the Society Annual meeting in Denver.

2013-14 Kim Rosval was President this year, she did a great job and had a baby boy “Dylan” to finish off her term. Again we started off the year with a great tour of the Updated B.C. Place a joint meeting with SMACNA-BC and MCA. Vancouver hosted the Society World IAQ 2013 Conference. October saw a workshop and dinner meeting presented by Bob Kline “Advanced VAV System Design and Energy Modelling with VAV diffusers”. November we were able to fit in a second tour with Refrigeration night at Hillcrest Community Centre the site of the 2010 Olympic Curling Venue. Kevin Marple Region XI DRC also visited for this meeting. October ASHRAE Journal featured an article on the Whistler Athletes Village Technology Award winning design by DEC Engineering. January was past Presidents Night and the presentation by Bill Bahnfleth Society President was cancelled due to bad weather conditions however we were fortunate to have Greg McCall City of Vancouver Energy Specialist discuss Vancouver’s adoption of ASHRAE 90.1. February was Membership night and Jay Eldridge spoke on “Fan Efficiency Requirements within ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2013”. March Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Lily Wang presented “Acoustics that make the grade in the Classroom”. AprilJim Aswegan Chief Engineer at Titus presented “Thermal Displacement Ventilation”. May 8,9,10 the CRC was in Richland WA. Final dinner meeting of the year Verle Williams ASHRAE DL spoke about “Central Chiller Plants”. The year ended again with our annual Golf Tournament. Tariq Amlani was recognized for his involvement in promoting YEA. The annual Summer meeting was held in Seattle and a Technology Award was won by AECOM for the Okanagan Falls Treatment Plant Project. In May we lost Dick Perry 90 years old and was still practising Engineering. The CRC was held in Calgary

2014-15 Stephen Kooiman was President this year. The year started on a great note with an Evening at the Vancouver Aquarium, with spouses, guests and industry partners SMACNA-BC and MCABC. We had our own Dolphin show and The Integral group spoke about the mechanical upgrades. October we had a visit from Leslie Jonsson -Mazzetti Engineers in Seattle on “Living Building Challenge” standard and certification. November was Refrigeration night and we had a tour of the Expanded Mechanical facilities at Rogers Arena and saw the inner workings of an NHL Arena. January Past Presidents Night with Society Past President Bill Bahnfleth on ASHRAE (bEQ) Building Energy Quotient. February-Membership NightSpeaker Harald Prell President Viessmann Manufacturing- “Biomass Boiler System Principals of Design”. March meeting Todd Busch on Acoustical Engineering Design of Laboratories. April another Membership Night with Daniel Boyton on “Integrated Systems Commissioning of Fire and Mechanical Systems”. May ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer James Tauby spoke on “Seismic Restraint of Mechanical Systems”. As is tradition the year ended with another great Golf Tournament with 144 participants and another 20 for dinner. At the Summer meeting Norm Grusnick was presented with a( DSA) Distinguished Service Award. This summer sadly Peter Djwa Chapter President 1985-86 passed away. The CRC was held in Saskatoon.

2015-16Les Pereira was President again this year. The season kicked off with a Tour of Science World, with members of SMACNA-BC. Ken Newbert and his group from Integral gave us an overview of all the HVAC upgrades. The building was originally constructed for the Expo 86 Worlds Fair. After several years of faltering Zander Brosky has resurrected the TOTEM as a quarterly newsletter.

October Distinguished Lecturer Chris Mathis presented the latest on Standard 90.1. Ali Nezari of the Integral Group gave a presentation on Energy Modelling and why it is invaluable for clients and designersduring the November meeting. January meeting Ron McLaughlin presented on “Energy Savings by Lowering Condensing Temperatures.” February was Past Presidents night and speaker/guest was Society President David Underwood. Mr Underwood related a story of the Historic Quebec Bridge Collapse and its importance to Canadian Engineers. President Underwood also presented his theme “Making Connections” which focuses on the first level of ASHRAE’s Strategic plan. March featured Frank Stamatatos tracing the evolution of air filtration techniques. April brought another great tour-Langley Events Center- Refrigeration Night. This facility is home to the Vancouver Giants of the WHL. We had three presenters, The Contractor, The Engineer, The Vendor all outlining their part in the project. May meeting we had distinguished ASHRAE presenters Julia Keen and Joel Primeau enlighten us on Generation Y,X and Millenials and how this will affect our workplaces in the future. May Golf Tournament a great success again and we were joined by BC Lions Cheerleadrers as grand prize was two season tickets for next year. The CRC was held this year in Saskatoon.

2016-17 Randy Stuart was President this year. We started the year at a unique venue, The Deeley Motorcycle Museum. A great social function featuring many vintage and new motorcycles. The dinner topic was Cloud Computing, big data and building automation by Keith La Rose. October brought us Distinguished Lecturer Ron Wilkinson he explained the “Commissioning process for Existing Buildings” and how to properly document your findings. November we switched to a lunch meeting downtown with Steve Claymanexplaining to us what is new in codes and applications of Mechanical Insulation. January we had a joint meeting with IAQA Vancouver. Speaker was James Montgomery from RDH Building Science presenting the topic “Energy Code Options for Existing Buildings”. February was again Past Presidents night with speaker/guest Society President Tim Wentz. Tim outlined his theme “Adapt Today to Shape Tommorrow”. March speaker Bill Baglot discussed “ VFD and ECMs and how they affect Pump Selection and Energy Savings”. April brought another great tour of the Refrigeration Systems at Richmond Ice Centre. Eric Bradley gave a summary of the chiller upgrade and the tight schedule that had to be adhered to. May was Student Night. Students displayed their work and mingled with potential employers. The speaker was Professor Steven Rogak from UBC. His tropic was “Aerosols in Buildings”. CRC was held in Puget Sound-Seattle this year. The final event of the year was a successful golf tournament with marginal weather.

2017-18Jay Jagpal is President this year. We started the year off with a great tour and social function with SMACNA-BC. We toured Central City Brewers in Surrey and learned of the many aspects of Beer making and Spirit distilling from Brewmaster Gary Lohin.